Death Cult

It's Clear the GOP Is a Party of Death, Not Life

THOM HARTMANN in Common Dreams

By Marc Murphy

Because they oppose a woman having the right to terminate a pregnancy, Republicans claim to be the Party of Life. In fact, they’re the Party of Death.

Seriously. Unless you’re white, straight, male, Christian, and morbidly rich, Republicans appear to want you and your children dead. In every instance, they will put a corporation or a rich white man’s making a buck over the life of anybody else.

Here's a very long list that proves it.

— Toxic waste kills people, but Republicans have worked for decades to cripple the EPA and other agencies’ ability to regulate it. Trump alone rolled back over 100 environmental regulations that protected families and children.

— Being homeless kills people, but Republicans fight any sort of housing support, rent control, or laws that might inhibit foreign or Wall Street investors from buying up housing stock and jacking up housing costs.

— Guns kill more children in America than any other single cause, and Republicans want more of them, including weapons designed exclusively for use on the battlefield.

— Hunger kills children through weakening their immune systems and diminishing their ability to learn, but Republicans are so opposed to feeding children at school that one rightwing talk host recently argued that hungry kids should be sent to orphanages.

— Pregnancy kills women far more often than abortion (20.1 deaths per 100,000 pregnancies versus .4 deaths per 100,000 abortions), but Republicans are passing laws to force women and girls to endure childbirth whether they want to or not.

— Suicide kills more gay men than AIDS, and queer youth are four times more likely to kill themselves than their cis counterparts, but Republicans continue to stigmatize and attempt to criminalize homosexuality, being transgender, and even dressing in drag.

— Cancer kills people, but Republicans defend carcinogenic pesticides and other chemicals in our food supply.

— Civil wars kill people, but Republicans are openly advocating one today.

— Coups kill people, too; over 140 police officers were injured, three were killed, along with four civilians on that January 6th day that Republican President Trump tried to overthrow the government of the United States.

— Children forced to work in meat packing plants and other dangerous places kill, but Arkansas’ Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders just proudly signed legislation loosening that state’s child labor laws and other Republican governors are considering the same.

— Back-alley abortions kill women, but Republicans in South Carolina are considering legislation to give the death penalty (your choice of lethal injection or firing squad) to women who travel to other states to get a legal abortion.

— Opioids kill people, but Republicans consistently oppose any funding for addiction treatment programs, “safe” places for addicts, and even anti-overdose drugs.

— Heart disease kills people, but Republicans fight every effort to reduce Americans’ consumption of trans-fats and saturated fats.

— Bacterial and viral infections kill people, but Republicans oppose any attempt to expand healthcare coverage for low-income people.

— Hate kills people, but Republicans most recently voted against anti-Asian hate-crimes legislation.

— Tearing children from their parents kills people — both through stress and suicide — but Republicans gleefully ripped thousands from their mothers’ arms and trafficked so many of them that around 1,000 are still missing.

— Stress from working full time but not being able to support your family kills people, but Republicans vigorously fight any effort to raise the minimum wage above $7.25 an hour.

— Cutting medications in half to save money kills people, but Republicans oppose any effort to reduce obscene drug prices.

— Deregulated trains kill people, but Republicans will only support more deregulation of the industry on top of all the rules Trump rolled back in 2018.

— Covid kills people, but Republicans were so anxious to turn a pandemic into a political opportunity that they embraced policies that led to over 300,000 unnecessary deaths, most (two to one) among people who trusted the GOP.

— Misogyny and domestic violence kills people, but Republicans have fought the Equal Rights Amendment for over 5 decades and 157 Republicans in the House voted against taking guns away from domestic abusers.

— Losing your home during an economic crisis kills people, but as suicides spiked during the 2008 Bush Crash, Republican Steve Mnuchin happily and perhaps illegally threw over 36,000 families out of their homes (and he was just the tip of the iceberg).

— Ignorance kills people, but Republicans want to ban books, fire teachers, and defund public schools.

— Student debt kills people, but Republicans fight any effort to reduce the school loan burden of millions of struggling Americans.

— Climate change kills people every single day, but Republicans continue to insist it’s not a problem or doesn’t even exist.

— Losing power during harsh weather kills people, but Republicans block every effort to shift America from big, centralized, for-profit power systems to local, community-based green power.

— Racism kills people, but Republicans have elevated it to the centerpiece of their so-called “anti-woke agenda.”

— Poverty kills children, but Republicans have blocked the Biden administration’s effort to maintain the child tax credit.

— Mass- and school-shooters kill people, but Republicans fight for killers’ right to continue to buy semi-automatic weapons, high-capacity magazines, and “cop-killer” bullets.

— Speaking of cops, they can kill, too. Far too often, and it’s got to be really tough on the good cops. But Republicans fight any effort to professionalize our police in America. If anything, they work to the contrary.

— Health insurance payment denials kill senior citizens, but Republicans continue to defend George W. Bush’s “Medicare Advantage” scam.

— Autocracy and strongman government kills people, but Republicans embrace both over democracy, which today they are actively working against.

— Diabetes kills people, but for over 20 years Republicans have fought lowering the cost of insulin.

— Premature birth kills babies, but for 40 years Republicans have fought every effort to provide housing, food, or medical care to pregnant women and, most recently, fought efforts to even provide workplace accommodations.

— Advanced dental disease kills people, but Republicans have fought adding dental care to Medicare or Medicaid since 1965 and proudly continue to do so.

— Vigilantism kills people but Republican-led states around the county have passed “stand your ground” laws that effectively legalize murder.

— Not having a union kills people (workplace deaths are 54% higher in “right to work for less” states), but Republicans consistently oppose the right of workers to unionize.

Untreated mental health issues can kill people, but 205 Republicans just voted against a bill to expand school mental health services.

Is there any area where Republicans will put the interests of life above making a buck or pandering to their base? Outside of their affection for fertilized eggs, I can’t find a single one. 

THOM HARTMANN is a talk-show host and the author of "The Hidden History of Monopolies: How Big Business Destroyed the American Dream" (2020); "The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America" (2019); and more than 25 other books in print.